School, stones and settlers

It was the children’s second day of school in the old city of Hebron. We had been asked to accompany them to prevent settler children from stoning small boys and girls.

Settlers had gone on a rampage yesterday, stoning us, the police and even the soldiers as they came down their ‘settler hill’. The police did nothing except look at these thugs throwing stones at us. When we asked where the teargas, sound bombs and rubber bullets were, they just shrugged.

Ten minutes after we arrived at the bottom of the hill to escort the children, the military showed up. “This is a closed military zone.” They informed us. “We want you to leave.” As we stood there and argued with them, they took out a piece of paper and pointed at it, telling us that the paper said it was a closed military zone.

Since there was no writing on it and no signature, one of the activists told the soldiers we were going nowhere unless the paperwork was filled out and signed. Off he went, then returned ten minutes later with an apparent filled-out form.

By this time, most of the girls had been escorted safely to school and most of the little boys had been able to get through the checkpoint, just one of the eight that rings the area.

One of the soldiers and some of the police told us, CPT and the Interdenominational tear that we were interferring with their jobs, and they could escort the children just fine. But they don’t and they won’t.